Oh my god. This is so gorgeous. One of the greatest novels I've ever read, and one of the most devastating and beautiful. A million stars.

I am often an impatient reader. It’s not uncommon for me to quickly abandon a novel if the first chapter doesn’t intrigue me. And Then She Fell opens with Disney’s Pocahontas breaking character from her animated world, and speaking directly to our protagonist, Alice, warning her against meeting up with a questionable young man. If that doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what will.

Alice, a Mohawk woman and new mother, is attempting to settle into life with her white, intellectual husband. She feels disconnected from cultural past, and is attempting to write a modern version of the Mohawk creation story. But she is also struggling with motherhood, racist neighbors, a controlling husband, and a Shape that seems to be haunting her. And the titular “fall” promises to be brutal.

Alicia Elliott is a wonderful storyteller. I found the tone in which this book is written incredibly easy to read and entertaining. I saw a lot of myself in Alice, and I’m sure all new mothers will. She effectively expresses how tough it can be to maintain your authentic self when displaced.

I really don’t want to spoil the novel for anyone, but the final few chapters bring everything together in such an extraordinary way. I was genuinely beaming while reading; this book truly is an ingenious bit of writing. Also, the accompanying illustrations are fantastic, and come at the exact right time in the novel to completely emotionally overwhelm the reader (in a good way).

And Then She Fell is a truly unique work; engaging and interesting. Alicia Elliott is a valuable voice, and deserves to be cherished.

alice sometimes feels as if she is outside her body. she’s also had a conversation with pocahontas, who jumped through her television screen. after having her daughter, alice feels the effects of postpartum depression and intergenerational native trauma. her goal is to write the story of creation the way her father told it to her when she was a child. after many rejections from creative writing programs and feeling like a “diversity pick,” alice begins to write the story she wants to tell. but where will it lead her?

the first half of this novel is very well written and explores ideas of motherhood, depression, substance abuse, native identity, the butchering of native languages, and the idea that white people write down native tales and sell it back to native people for profit. alice is a struggling mother, trying to build a bond with a baby that she feels doesn’t lover her back.

my issue is with the final quarter of the novel. it delves into madness, as promised, but in a way that felt too confusing to conceptualize. it felt as though everyone was talking to alice and nothing was going on other than dialogue. the ending left me with more questions that remained unanswered and i felt a bit lost. alice’s fate is up to the reader; you don’t get a nice big bow wrapping up the novel.

elliott does a great job changing her writing style and voice when she gives us bits and pieces of alice’s writing. i personally felt that alice was rather juvenile, and honestly not a very good writer. i felt myself annoyed with alice to the point that i couldn’t see how she had married her husband and had a child with him; he’s awful.

that being said, it’s a great tale of indigenous motherhood. alice is a multifaceted character and incredibly complicated in the best way.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Alice is a Mohawk Indian living away from the rez in Canada. She has just given birth to a beautiful baby named Dawn. She feels isolated and is suffering from imposter syndrome, postpartum depression and the everyday microaggressions she faces in an unfamiliar city.

What seems too good to be true may very well be as Alice begins to notice strange happenings related to her husband and neighbors. As more is revealed, Alice falls into a rabbit hole of her own making, or is it? Native legend and lore, loneliness, and so much more is encompassed in this brilliant and original work, If you are interested in reading more indigenous authors, love domestic fiction with a hint of horror or just want to read something truly original and unforgettable, And Then She Fell is for you!
To#Penguin #AndThenSheFell #AliciaElliot

My mind is whirling so fast trying to absorb everything thrown my way, including wrongful treatment, racism, genocide against indigenous people, postpartum depression, motherhood, self-worth, mental illness, drug addiction, and parallel universes.

This book is not just captivating women's fiction or thought-provoking multicultural interest/fiction; it goes beyond that by blending different genres, including mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, and magical realism.

I found myself invested in Alice's story as she is slowly drawn into her own kind of rabbit hole, blaming herself for not being a good mother, daughter, wife, writer, and neighbor, and embarrassing her own ancestors by leaving her old life behind and trying to adapt to privileged white people's lives. She also learns not to get offended by their comments about her race, language, and culture.

After getting pregnant with her baby girl, Alice marries the charming and aspiring professor Steve, who seems like the perfect husband and father to her baby girl, Dawn. He even tries to learn the Mohawk language to teach their daughter in the future, as a tribute to their culture.

However, long sleepless nights, her daughter's nonstop crying, and rejecting breastfeeding push Alice into spiraling, like when she was thirteen and spoke to Pocahontas, who told her the harsh truth behind her true life story, which is not a fairytale as romanticized in the Disney movie.

Alice finds herself talking with a shape that may represent the voice of her ancestors. She even starts counseling sessions with a talking cockroach that appears in their bathroom.

She finally realizes that her neighbors are watching her, and her own husband schemes a dangerous plan to take away their daughter! Can she save herself and her daughter from their intrusions?

The first half of the book is intriguing, informing us about the extra demanding responsibilities of motherhood, snippets of Alice's grief, and her own ill-fated relationship with her mother. The story about Sky Women embracing Mohawk Culture is beautiful, but the second half gets more escalated than you can ever imagine. Get ready to have your mind blown away!

Overall, the smart writing, representation of Mohawk culture, womanhood, motherhood, and mental illness make this book one of my favorite readings!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP DUTTON for sharing this incredible book's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.